Paradigm shift in teaching and learning

The DETVET project aims at promoting VET teachers’ pedagogical, didactic, mentoring, coaching and other transferable competencies. Pedagogical competencies include, among other things, an innovative and meaningful use of ICT and social media in teaching and learning. But, introducing a new tool does not necessarily make teaching any better; in fact, in some cases it may make it worse. My concern is VET teachers’ awareness, or lack of it, of the paradigm shift in teaching and learning. This paradigm shift changes teacher and student roles in ways that are in a striking contrast with traditional teaching.

Traditionally, the focus was on teaching. Teachers were in control of students’ learning distributing bits and pieces of their knowledge to students, who were seen as ‘tabula rasa’, fairly stable in their abilities merely acquiring a toolbox of knowledge to be applied in basically similar situations. Now the focus is on the learner and learning, and what students can do to deepen their understanding of the phenomenon under study. Teachers’ task is to facilitate students’ learning process by helping them to set their own goals, monitor and assess their learning, take control. Collaboration, self- and peer-assessment, continuous feedback and feedforward are key words in this process. Here new technologies have proved a great asset enabling and encouraging students to knowledge building by sharing and learning together and from each other.

However, old habits die hard. There is plenty of scientific evidence of how difficult it is for teachers to let go of control. Teachers are rather quick to take new technologies into use and are excited about new possibilities they offer. But why is it that many times the new tool becomes a delivery vehicle of teachers’ knowledge that they want to transmit to students, instead of becoming a tool for students to construct their own knowledge networks? An overhead replaces the blackboard with the end result of messy transparencies, a computer drills and practices through automatic responses, the net becomes a material bank with questions formulated by teachers for students to find correct answers to, Second Life is equipped with auditoriums, where teachers can show power point slides!

In my dissertation on vocational education, I investigate what goes on in teachers’ minds as they face the paradigm shift and want to change their teaching. I argue that it is a question of conceptual change; the whole concept of teaching has changed. Transforming one’s mindset is not easy and does not happen overnight. Further, even though teachers may agree with the new theories of teaching and learning and want to apply them in their work, their practices do not necessarily change accordingly. I suggest that to change their teaching teachers should first become aware of their existing beliefs and critically question them in light of the new theories. Only by abandoning their entrenched beliefs are they able to accommodate their mental schemes to receive new information about teaching and learning and to truly apply it in practice.

I also make an effort to formulate a model of how this could be achieved. It requires an intentional conceptual change on the part of teachers. This means that their goal should not be primarily to make use of social media or ICT tools in a meaningful way, but to question their beliefs in order to change their pedagogical thinking. The rest will follow. To achieve this goal teachers need to have an understanding of new theories of teaching and learning and they need to engage in critical self-reflection and collaboration with colleagues.

Reference:
Mällinen, S. (2007) Conceptual Change Process of Polytechnic Teachers in Transition From Classrooms to Web-based Courses. Tampere University Press. Available 14 October 2009 at http://acta.uta.fi/pdf/978-951-44-7072-1.pdf